Illness Management and Recovery / IMR-A02-5
Understanding My Experience — Review journal
Review an attempt at understanding my experience and choose what to keep, change, or leave aside.
10 minutes · Journal prompts · Adults; supported use as appropriate
Fictional example: Casey wants clearer information about recurring concentration difficulties.
Use an ordinary or fictional example, with a clinician when appropriate. Learning about mental health concerns can support agency without reducing a person to a diagnosis.
Before looking back
Choose one ordinary attempt or decide to review the fictional example instead. This journal has no scores, required disclosure, or expectation of progress.
Revisit the practice
Separate experiences you notice, explanations offered by providers, and questions you still want answered.
Notice context and impact
Record what actually happened, including an unhelpful or neutral outcome. Note resources, power differences, accessibility, and changed conditions rather than attributing everything to personal effort.
Choose a revision
What would you like explained in your own language? Keep the approach, change one part, ask for support, or set it aside. A mismatch is useful information.
Prompts for this resource
- What I tried, or what happened in the fictional example:
- What I noticed before, during, and after; what remains uncertain:
- What helped, did not help, or was outside my control:
- What would you like explained in your own language? My optional adjustment or support request:
Conceptual background
Illness Management and Recovery Evidence-Based Practices KIT — SAMHSA
Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.